Treasury: Time for pensions to catch up with online banking
A prototype of the Pensions Dashboard will be ready by March 2017, the Government has revealed.
The Treasury said that 11 of the largest pension providers - Aviva, Aon, HSBC, LV=, NEST, Now: Pensions, People’s Pension, Royal London, Standard Life, Zurich and Willis Towers Watson will build it.
The ABI has also agreed to manage the dashboard pilot project, which is designed to let savers see all their pension pots in one place and help them to plan for their retirement more effectively.
Simon Kirby, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said: “Technology, like mobile phone apps, has made day to day banking easier than it’s ever been and it is time for pensions to catch up. Think of a future where you can compare your pension pots with the touch of a button. The Pensions Dashboard will unlock a huge amount of information that will help people make the best choices for them.”
The dashboard, first announced at Budget 2016, aims to also provide a link to ‘lost’ pension pots with previous employers. Officials said it could help release the £400 million worth of pensions savings that the Department for Work and Pension estimate are currently unclaimed.
On average, a person can have 11 employers over their working life, which means that they could end up with almost a dozen private pensions by the time they retire, according to the Treasury.
Patrick Heath-Lay, CEO of the People’s Pension, said: “The dashboard has the opportunity to change the way the we do pensions, delivering an infrastructure that has the potential to allow people the opportunity to see all their pensions in one place whilst driving greater efficiency within the pensions system.
“But it must be built first and foremost for savers and have strong, independent, ownership and governance.
“It is great that the government and industry are working together to make this a reality. It is crucial that we all make the most of this opportunity and the industry as a whole embraces the dashboard.”
Mr Kirby will announce it officially today at the Aviva Digital Garage.